AIBU to worry about the surge in school-suggested ASD diagnoses?

[cremebrulait]

Fellow mums, I'm worried about a trend I've noticed in our schools. It seems some are pushing parents to seek ASD diagnoses to secure funding for support. While I absolutely believe children with autism deserve all the help they can get, I'm concerned about the following:

1. The high rate of suggested ASD diagnoses in some classes (much higher than average)
2. Schools advising parents to get diagnoses to continue enrollment
3. Long NHS waiting times leading to private evaluations

I worry this might lead to:

• Misallocation of resources
• Inappropriate interventions for children
• Overlooking other potential issues
• Psychological impact on misdiagnosed children

Shouldn't there be equality in support for children with other learning or developmental issues too? Like ADHD, emotional and behavioural disorders, sensory impairments, physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, developmental delays, health conditions, sensory processing disorder, specific learning differences, or twice-exceptional children?

AIBU to think this system is flawed? Has anyone else experienced this? Am I overreacting, or is this a genuine concern? What are your thoughts on how we can ensure all children get the right support without resorting to potentially inaccurate diagnoses?

(I'll post more thoughts on misdiagnosis in comments.)

"I’m or sure why you think I’m opposed. I in no way stated kids should t have support. Not at all. I’ve only questioned how schools (or our school) are going about it."

An ASD diagnosis does not effect the amount of hours of support a child gets.

"Children with anxiety and trauma often get misdiagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder and therefore keep getting disciplined incorrectly exacerbating the problems."

ODD and PAD are no longer diagnosed.

It's a very long diagnostic process which includes friends family and the child . Done by a psychologist who has undergone years of training to get to the level needed. i'm not worried about misdiagnosis. I'm more worried about the lack of funding and lack of support on diagnosis, which is my experience.

"ADHD is overdiagnosed in the youngest children in a class who are simply not at the same level as the oldest children. (Did you know there are private schools that divide the year into 3 groups so that children are only a few months apart? "

Did you know that an ADHD diagnosis is a lengthy and rigorous process? Absolutely no way a child would be diagnosed for being 'not at the level of the oldest children'. Or even referred.

@lemonmeringueno3 in our experience the ASD (mis)diagnosis was essentially done by one SALT who did not have the appropriate qualifications and experience to make an accurate diagnosis.
DS should have been assessed by a psychiatrist but he wasn’t - due to time constraints the psychiatrist assessed a survey done by dh and me. I know now that the psychiatrist should have spent time with ds - but he didn’t.

this is just our experience of one child in one borough - but I do wonder how many other children have been through this system and have the wrong “label”.

" I have a relative who was given a label of autism which shaped other people’s perspective of them. They never got appropriate support because once that diagnosis was given nobody considered the other possibilities."

Who diagnosed autism? Because you don't get a diagnosis of autism by accident, although well known that there are many co morbid diagnoses.

I think they are challenging your suggestion that schools do referrals just to get more funding, and quite rightly people are saying that a diagnosis doesn't guarantee extra funding.

I do also agree there is a lack of equity across disabilities. In our borough, children with ASD usually get weekly SLT and OT funded within EHCP, but there is no EHCP physio funding for physical disabilities

"I keep hearing about 1 to 1 support - but the children they support don’t need 1 to 1 help all the time! Isn’t that a wasted resource other parents could benefit from?"

There isn't a school in the country that can afford 1:1 support if it isn't needed. Again, a diagnosis does not come with 1:1 support. 1:1 support is provided when this is the only way a pupil can access the curriculum, with or without a diagnosis, and regardless of what any diagnosis might be.

Nobody has said it’s not based on need. A diagnosis doesn’t tell of need it tells of diagnosis. But you’re making out like people say “I’m autistic” and resources are thrown at them like sweets and the truth is nothing like that.

A SALT can't provide a diagnosis of autism. Do you mean that they suggested it as a possibility, or suggested a referral to explore concerning behaviour?

School doesn't get any funding if a DC gets an autism diagnosis so your whole premise is flawed. So yes you are overreacting.

I completely disagree with your original premise.

I don’t disagree with anything you wrote except your interpretation that I am opposed to everything and that “my story” about medication didn’t stack up. I never wrote that ASD kids need medication- if it was interpreted that way it was unintentional. I mean for example if a child needs meds for ADHD and they’ve been given an ASD diagnosis that is incorrect- they’re not being properly treated.

in a perfect world 1to1 is only that child. I can’t explain the exact situation as it could be out-ing but I know first hand the school is off the record using one child’s 1 to 1 to help other children.

ABA - again I do not disagree for the most part. I know there are some that could be useful. I tried ABA for my child at age 3 who was NOT diagnosed with ASD and it was helpful with a very special take on it. But we switched providers and I fired them very quickly because as you say they were abusive.

And now you can take you can apologise for your ridiculous assumptions. “I really do hope that you are lying about working with children with ASD as your ignorance shines through your posts and your offensive opinions belong in the bin. Fucking ABA was discredited years ago as child abuse.”

What makes you think HCP aren't able to diagnose correctly? And ABA? We're not in the states!

"Well I’m glad you think there is something wrong with my post. Because everything I wrote is EXACTLY what is going on at our school."

No, funding is not linked to a diagnosis anywhere.

No, support in school is not linked to a diagnosis anywhere. Or, if it is, they'll spectacularly fail their Ofsted inspection.

You have no idea about the diagnoses, needs or support of any children except your own yet here you are spreading the sort of misinformation schools hear from clueless, gossipy parents on the playground all the time.

Excellent.

Yet another fucking thread questioning the validity of an ASD diagnosis, posed as faux concern.

Can’t we get a new favourite goady subject?

I would say this is just getting boring but for those of us in the autistic community, the repetition of these lies, half-truths, and misconceptions has real life consequences.

ASD DC will not be treated differently? What are you talking about? They should get any reasonable adjustments necessary. You need to educate yourself.

The really scary thing is 1/3 of voters agree with the OP

Your school is getting funding for every DC diagnosed with ASD? No it isn't.

It's scary but not surprising. Lots of people are so ignorant when it comes to ASD. While thinking that know it all!

"It would be interesting to know how many school referrals come back with a confirmed diagnosis."

100% of ours.

And more children we miss and get to secondary school before the increased demands start to take their toll.

And more children who get to adulthood because parents refused to refer because they 'don't want a label' or 'if he is autistic it's only a bit'.

Young adults falling apart at university because they've managed to mask until then.

I should add - our referral is not specifically for autism. How could we, when we're not qualified to say whether they're autistic or not? We refer and the NHS takes it from there.

To be fair I didn’t miss it. I kept editing. I originaly wrote a post so long so figured it would be too long to read. I used ChatGPT to edit to a more concise post. I am ND. Many in my family are ND. My experience has been that (based MN-era blasting me) that in my LA they are using ASD as a catch-all to get support. That offends me. And people are attacking me rather than the experience I’ve had.

When my son went into a new class I was warned by a friend that she’d annoyed loads of the parents as she told half of them she thought their kids were autistic. Sure enough at parents evening she was making comments that suggested she thought the same of my son “he’s very intense” “he’s extremely clever” blah blah. I knew what she was hinting at and didn’t engage further.

But how are they getting support because a DC has an ASD diagnosis? It just doesn't work like that.

"My experience has been that (based MN-era blasting me) that in my LA they are using ASD as a catch-all to get support. That offends me. And people are attacking me rather than the experience I’ve had."

For the billionth time - a diagnosis does not result in support, anywhere. The demonstrated, daily needs of the child are what lead to support. Schools don't know or care what the diagnosis is. We don't wait two years to support a child because we need a diagnosis.

How can you possibly know that your LA misdiagnoses autusm?

We are not attacking you. We are trying to tell you that you are labouring under misconceptions and misinformation, that you're spreading falsehoods that damages the autistic community. You are, quite simply, wrong on a great many points. But that's a good thing surely, if you were genuinely posting out of concern.